Born out of necessity with Volunteers' Needs in Mind
Started in 2012 in High River, Alberta, MusicFestivalSuite was born out of necessity. The old management system used by the High River and District Lions Music Festival was too hard on volunteers; registrations were accepted on paper, then typed into a software by volunteers, then printed, cut apart and spread out on living room floors to schedule their festival.
They had a vision of a better solution that could be accessible anywhere in the world, managed on the Internet, and saved volunteer hours. They started with a company in British Columbia that made accepting registrations easier, but the same volunteer-intensive schedule process occurred, and the company simply couldn't understand the fine details of operating a music festival. Worse, a privacy breach took place, and suddenly the festival was liable for some significant damages.
An in-house made-at-home solution was the only way forward.
A Solution Designed by Local Music Festivals for use by Local Music Festivals.
The High River and District Lions Music Festival entered into an agreement with Windsor Graphics, an Alberta-based company with experience not only with the minutia of privacy law, but also with extensive volunteer experience and connection to music festivals. The Highwood Lions Music Festival provided the design concepts with volunteers in mind, Windsor Graphics brought it to fruition. Very quickly the software proved to meet every need the festival had, from accepting registrations and payments, to scheduling, adjudicator sheet and certificate generation, and more. By 2014 it was offered to other festivals in Alberta, leading to the development of an email communication system, making it possible for nearly every aspect of a festival to be managed from MusicFestivalSuite.
In 2016, the newly-renamed Highwood Lions Music Festival, having provided the base design, signed off on Windsor Graphics taking over the project in its entirety with the festival's former President at the helm, allowing the volunteers to focus entirely on their festival. Shortly thereafter Windsor Graphics expanded MusicFestivalSuite to Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia.
Having been designed, developed, supported and grown by music festival volunteers, MusicFestivalSuite continued to grow.
A Sudden Need to Go Online Meant Major Changes
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, MusicFestivalSuite was doing what was necessary for a largely in-person community of festivals. With the pandemic, the needs of festivals changed overnight; privacy and anti-spam laws became harder to manage, performances needed to be accepted online, venue costs ballooned, and volunteers started to burn out.
MusicFestivalSuite's team was there to support volunteers. By the beginning of the 2021 Festival Season, new features for asynchronous online festivals were added, adherence to privacy and anti-spam laws was strengthened, and even some cost-saving measures were added to the system. Since its creation, MusicFestivalSuite focussed on the volunteer first, and a pandemic didn't change that.
One of the best features of MusicFestivalSuite is the one-on-one support provided so volunteers can focus on the festival.
New Ownership - WindyJMusic
In 2023, Windsor Graphics started their transition to well-earned retirement, and WindyJMusic took over MusicFestivalSuite in its entirety. It immediately entered into a modernization process, taking advantage of new tools available in cloud computing, expanding its capacity in every aspect of the software, and fully redesigning the look and feel of MusicFestivalSuite.
The result is a much more user-friendly, mobile-friendly, and volunteer-friendly interface than ever before, with the capacity to continue growing into an all-encompassing solution for Music Festivals, beyond registration and schedule management. Now being used by over 50 festivals in 7 provinces, MusicFestivalSuite continues to grow to offer solutions for every festival circumstance.
Meet Joel Windsor, Owner of WindyJMusic
Joel Windsor is a high school music teacher in a very successful and eclectic music program in High River, Alberta. He teaches Concert Bands, Jazz Bands and Combos, String Orchestra, Steel Pan Ensembles, Composition, Music Through Technology, and Marching Band. He is also a performing percussionist, having played with the Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra, Alberta Winds, Rocky Mountain Symphony Orchestra, and the Foothills Philharmonic Orchestra.
Joel is also a perpetual volunteer, having served as President of the High River and District Lions Music Festival, the Town of High River Arts Advisory Committee, the Alberta Music Education Foundation, the Alberta Band Association, MusicConference Alberta, the Alberta Registered Music Teachers' Association, the Alberta Teachers' Association and much more. He is a strong advocate for music, music education, and all performing experiences for learning musicians including music festivals.
Joel began learning to code for computers as a teenager, but took it on in earnest with MusicFestivalSuite. He now operates not only MusicFestivalSuite, but also other tools including TeachBand101.com and TickSuite. He is also the Editor for the Alberta Registered Music Teachers' Association's Tempo Magazine, and is a Master of Ceremonies for multiple historical and renaissance-themed events.
Joel is the Owner, the Coder and the Support Liaison, all in one.
Joel is there for you at every step of the festival. Not only does he help with the site, but he also advises through his extensive experience on festival management. He is not just the support contact, but also the person coding and developing the software. Joel prides himself on putting volunteers first to help your festivals be successful.
